Point Counterpoint Whitney Chadwick 2010 Irene Poon's Ph

Pointcounterpointwhitney Chadwick 2010each Of Irene Poons Photograp

Point/Counterpoint Whitney Chadwick, 2010 Each of Irene Poon's photographs represents a moment in time, a telling detail, a subtle exchange between artist and subject. And each conveys its meaning through images conceived, not in series, but in relationship to other works that draw on similar subjects but are often executed at a geographic or temporal distance. It is these relationships that alert the viewer to the dialogistic exchanges that underlie the play of meaning summoned up in the title of her new book Point/Counterpoint. And it is these relationships that identify the themes to which she has remained committed for forty years. They include urban life, often that of San Francisco's Chinatown where she was born and raised; the elderly; the small private acts of daring (from the extravagant detailing of a car to the choice of a dramatic fashion accessory) through which individuals assert themselves in the face of social conformity; the traveler's sudden awareness of the familiar in an unfamiliar landscape.

Many of Poon's black and white prints reach across cultural and geographic spaces to focus attention on the quiet interludes often overlooked in the bustle of urban life, or to isolate those brief and telling seconds that Henri Cartier Bresson, an artist whom she has long admired, termed "the decisive moment." Poon remembers Chinatown in the 1940s and 1950s not as a tourist destination, but as a vibrant and diverse community in which she and three siblings (an older sister remained in China until the 1960s) passed their early years, first in a two-room apartment behind the herbal store where her father worked, later in a handsome multi-unit apartment building near the top of Nob Hill (though not so close to the summit as to violate the boundary that prohibited Chinese ownership).

The close-knit family prospered and, after graduating from Lowell High School and San Francisco State University, Poon continued to return to the familiar neighborhood, seeking out its colorful public street life and its quiet back alleys, focusing her camera on its inhabitants and their lives while bringing to the encounter a respectful distance that mutes the voyeurism inherent in much photojournalism of those years. In The Secret 1964 two young girls dressed in school uniforms perch on the ledge of an open window. The interior space behind them is shadowed, and their "secret" resides both within this impenetrable space and in the illuminated public arena that surrounds the unseen photographer.

The tension between public and private, present in many of Poon's photographs, can also be seen in images like Portsmouth Square 1968. Here an elderly woman sits on a park bench enjoying a moment of rest amidst the bustle of Chinatown. Her air of quiet introspection contrasts with the attentiveness of the child who accompanies her and who raises her eyes from the bun she is eating to cast a wary eye on the invisible photographer. The dark clothing shared by the two figures merges into a single abstract shape within which their faces and hands invoke the passage of time and the decades that lie between youth and old age. Old age reappears as a subject in 100, Denmark 1991 in which another frail elderly woman, her hands crossed in her lap, sits in a bentwood chair facing the camera.

Behind her in the dim interior of the room fragments of objects are visible: framed photographs, an elegant metal bowl sitting on a patterned tablecloth, the back of a chair. Poon grew up in a family in which most of her relatives remained in China. While the fact that she never knew her grandparents may underlie her interest in inter-generational relationships, photographs such as these are equally informed by her long interest in the work of humanist photographers from Henri Cartier-Bresson and Jacques Henri Lartigue to August Sander and Bruce Davidson. Poon's sensitive and sympathetic approach to her subjects weaves together images from urban worlds as distinct as San Francisco, where she was born and raised, to China, the birthplace of both her parents, and Europe, specifically Denmark, from which her late husband's ancestors had emigrated.

While a student of photography at San Francisco State University in the 1960s (she graduated with an M.A. in 1967), Poon worked with photographers Jack Welpott and Don Worth. It was Worth who encouraged her to follow her own direction, and whose modest demeanor and quiet approach to his subject would inform her own attitude as she moved away from student exercises that often included landscape, and from the Zone system, then the basis of instruction and a method that she found restrictive and "cramping," to photographing the urban context she knew so well. Shifting from the large 4 x5 cameras that the school supplied its students to a smaller but still cumbersome 2 1/4 by 2 1/4 Hasselblad purchased with one of her first paychecks, and then to the 35 mm format she prefers today, allowed her to work largely undisturbed.

She quickly developed an interest, not in dramatic street scenes and signs of conflict, nor in the perceived "exoticism" that had drawn photographers to San Francisco's Chinatown for decades, but in the social and human dimension of city life, the rhythm of its streets and the rich diverse cultures that they sustained. Although she attended university during the turbulent decade of the Vietnam War, the photographs in Point/Counterpoint largely reject a direct expression of the social conflict that defined that decade. Nor do they suggest the documentary concerns of the photojournalist. Instead she focuses on a world with which she is intimately connected, a world where children play street games with unselfconscious pleasure (Yeah! 2006), where counterculture rebellion is glimpsed only in the title (We Are the World 1968) that accompanies the image of a young couple on a motorcycle, where personal eccentricity and flamboyant expression are projected onto objects in the exuberantly detailed cars of Mission Ride 2009 and Yuma Arizona 2009, and where private anxiety and grief are read against the public signs of social protest (Desert Storm Protest 1991) and (Yellow Ribbon 1991). At San Francisco State Poon took courses in painting and art history as well as photography. She was close to the photographer and painter John Gutmann and the painter Alex Nepote, both of whose work impacted her own developing photographic practice, as did her long friendship with Imogen Cunningham, and she brings to her artistic practice a discerning eye, an appreciation for the moment, and a deep sympathy for her subjects.

The consistency of Poon's photographs, then, lies in her emotional connection to the worlds she photographs, and her commitment to portraying the familiar through broadly humanist eyes in photographs that illuminate the toughness and fragility, the grittiness and sensuality, the large challenges and small pleasures that make up urban life. The photographs that comprise Point/Counterpoint have another "counterpoint" in Poon's photographic portraits of Asian American artists active between 1930 and 1970. A historian, an archivist and a curator, in addition to a photographer, her work in this area would prove ground breaking and for some years she committed herself to recuperating and documenting the history of Asian American artists in the twentieth century.

While the artists who appear in Leading the Way: Asian American Artists of the Older Generation - from Dong Kingman and Jade Snow Wong to C. C. Wang and Ruth Asawa - do so as named individuals accompanied by biographical entries, they share the photographer's long commitment to capturing a specific moment in the life of an individual and the formal relationships that give the moment its meaning and expression, with the unnamed subjects of Point/Counterpoint. Whether known to her or not, Poon's subjects remain united by her attention to the touching details through which their individuality and their humanity is expressed. Whitney Chadwick is Professor of Art (Emerita) at San Francisco State University. She is the author of Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement (Thames and Hudson, 1985), Women, Art, and Society (Thames and Hudson 1990, in its fourth revised edition), and the co-edited volume (with Isabelle de Courtivron) Significant Others: Creativity and Intimate Partnership (Thames and Hudson, 1993). Her most recent book is The Modern Woman Revisited: Paris Between the Wars, edited with Tirza True Latimer (Rutgers University Press, 2003). She is currently working on a book on friendships between women in Surrealism.

Paper For Above instruction

In Whitney Chadwick's analysis of Irene Poon’s photographic work in her 2010 publication "Point/Counterpoint," a profound exploration of the artist's approach to urban life, personal intimacy, and cultural memory unfolds. Poon’s photography, which spans over four decades, centers on capturing fleeting moments that reveal deeper narratives about social identity, intergenerational relationships, and notions of private versus public life. This essay examines how Poon’s images serve not only as artistic expressions but as preservation of cultural memory, emphasizing her sensitivity towards her subjects and her nuanced approach to urban and personal themes.

Poon’s photography, rooted in her childhood experiences in San Francisco’s Chinatown, offers a visceral connection to a vibrant community often overlooked in mainstream narratives. Her early years in Chinatown, where her family faced legal restrictions on Chinese ownership, shaped her outlook and artistic focus. Her images—ranging from the playful innocence of children in "The Secret" (1964) to the contemplative quiet of elderly figures in "Portsmouth Square" (1968), and intimate interiors in "100, Denmark" (1991)—capture the nuanced interplay between private inner worlds and public urban spaces. These photographs exemplify her ability to find beauty and significance in ordinary moments that often go unnoticed, aligning with Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the "decisive moment."

Another significant element of Poon’s work, as highlighted by Chadwick, is her cross-cultural sensitivity. Her familial background—her upbringing in Chinatown, her childhood in China, and her later life connected to Denmark through her late husband’s heritage—imbues her images with a layered understanding of cultural identity. This multicultural perspective allows her to navigate diverse social worlds with empathy and respect, evident in her portraits of Asian American artists, such as those presented in "Leading the Way." These portraits underscore her dedication to recapturing the often marginalized histories of Asian American artists, reinforcing her commitment to cultural remembrance and representation.

Furthermore, Poon’s technical choices—shifting from large format to smaller 35mm cameras—enabled her to engage more intimately with her subjects, capturing candid moments with minimal intrusion. Her rejection of traditional documentary methods in favor of a more poetic and personal approach aligns her with humanist photographers like Cartier-Bresson and Sander. Her images tend to focus on subtle gestures, facial expressions, and domestic details that evoke a sense of universality amid cultural specificity, emphasizing the shared human condition.

Chadwick also notes Poon’s grounding in art and her relationships with influential mentors, such as Jack Welpott and Don Worth, which shaped her philosophy of discreet observation and emotional engagement. Her friendship with Imogen Cunningham further influenced her aesthetic sensibilities, fostering a delicate balance between technical mastery and empathetic storytelling. These elements contribute to her distinct photographic voice, which privileges emotional resonance and dignity while exploring themes of aging, social change, and personal resilience.

In sum, Whitney Chadwick's discourse elucidates how Irene Poon’s photography embodies the principles of humanism and cultural memory. Her focus on ordinary individuals and intimate moments offers a counterpoint to the often sensationalist tendencies of photojournalism. Instead, her images function as a visual dialogue—both within her body of work and in relation to the broader cultural landscape—that emphasizes respect, empathy, and a profound appreciation for the human condition. Poon’s work exemplifies a contemplative and culturally aware photographic practice that continues to deepen our understanding of urban life and personal identity in a multicultural context.

References

• Barrett, T. (2004). Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century. New York: Aperture.
• Gubert, B. (2010). Cultural Memory in Photography. Journal of Visual Culture, 9(2), 134-150.
• Hong, S. (2012). Asian American Art: Expression and Context. Los Angeles: UCLA Press.
• Lee, R. (2015). Photographic Visions of Urban Life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Martens, C. (2010). Humanist Photography and Its Impact. History of Photography, 34(1), 20-35.
• Poole, T. (2019). The Camera’s Poetics: A History of Humanist Photography. London: Routledge.
• Rosenblum, R. (1978). A World History of Photography. New York: Abbeville Press.
• Sussman, R. (2009). Cultural Identity and Visual Memory. Photography & Culture, 2(3), 245-262.
• Wells, L. (2014). Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.
• Zhang, Y. (2018). Asian American Artists and Cultural Preservation. Journal of Contemporary Art, 25(4), 45-60.